An independent pro-Indy modeller from Scotland, in love with his country and its railways.

Month: April 2013

Lining is now completed.
This locomotive has a fairly rare dome configuration for the mid 1950s and I’ve been unable to find a suitable lowland match. Therefore she is to become 54495 of Inverness.
Actually, at close of play tonight, one side has already been numbered with the other being done tomorrow.
Then the proper work of making her look like a real engine in miniature can take place!

Construction, now completed, I can lay the model aside overnight to dry.
Tomorrow she can cross the workshop to the painting department.
In summary; a nice, satisfying build requiring just enough attention and experience to keep it interesting in a pleasant, relaxed way.
Everything I expect from a wagon kit in fact.
Finally, before anyone points it out, I spotted the slightly errant brake lever as I was typing this and corrected it!

Today I’ve had a nice afternoon and evening tackling a Cambrian kit.
This is my first build to EM and depicts the LMS diagram 1829 12 ton steel van.
Not a difficult build by any means but a degree of previous experience helps with the kit. Whilst I’m not in a position to check the dimensional accuracy the part assembled model looks sufficiently close to the image I’m working from; taken by Don Rowland in 1962. Don’s photo is of a Metro-Cammell built van though the kit depicts a Gloucester-built example. I can’t honestly see any glaring differences other than the Met-Cam possibly having less riveting on the upper body’s outer sections. They may be just hiding, free of surface rust though.
The build has provided no dramas so far though it benefits from a wee bit of fettling here and there.
I’ve enhanced the build with Lanarkshire Models pewter buffers (B003 in this instance) and coupling hooks. Other than these the van currently bears no further enhancements beyond the Gibson wheels and bearings.
I’ve always fancied doing one of these vans because they seem to weather in an almost marine fashion.
You may see the finished example on Culreoch next year !

A trip was made to Whitrope today to take measurements of the timbers with a view to having replacement planking cut.One surprising observation was that the horizontal planking varied in depth considerably but within certain limits. On the end for example two planks were 220mm in depth whilst another two were 170mm and a single plank measure 180mm. Variations on this them were repeated on each face of the wagons though it has to be said that it still ended up the same total height on every face so the variations ultimately balanced out.The coach bolts used in this vehicle are pretty badly rusted and it looks like we’ll be grinding these off and replacinWhat appeared utterly random though was the floor planking which although of consistent depth had no two planks exactly the same width.It rather proves an engineer friend’s theory that joiners have somewhat looser measurement standards than those who work with metal!

After some lengthy consideration about track standards I have decided to adopt EM gauge as my preferred option. Having said that, I fully intend to investigate P4 in a parallel project. Whilst there’s no doubt that P4 standards have a truly beautiful finesse and really are the finest and most accurate, the type of space I have available for layout purposes requires curvature down to 36″ which is much too sharp for P4 to accommodate. Most P4 exhibition layouts are end-to-end with minimal curvature for a very good reason! This has not precluded me from joining the Scalefour Society, whose ethos of an overall consistent appearance in all aspects of modelling appeals to me strongly and though the main project will be EM, beyond the (still superior to mainstream OO) track I will be applying Scalefour standards. Additionally, I will be embarking on a small P4 project. Options for this are as yet undecided but favourite ideas currently concern scenes based on the Tweed Valley line where very short trains were the rule in the BR era apart from some notable occasions, as here. http://www.kelso.bordernet.co.uk/history/railway-station.html

Meanwhile, the main thrust of the EM modelling will remain the Waverley Route as before. EM being more akin to finescale OO but to a more accurate gauge can take the sharper curvature more happily.

It’s completely new territory for me and already some new EM-related track and equipment is being gathered including the first conversion kit for an existing loco.

This is a Brassmasters Easichassis conversion kit for the Bachmann A1 and will form the centrepiece of a future blog feature.

Meanwhile, please have a look at my new page – Anatomy of a wagon which will follow a full size vehicle restoration project at Whitrope.

A period of leave is about to start and this will lead to some new entries and updates on current projects. A new sub-blog will emerge shortly called The Anatomy of a wagon; this will chart the restoration of the WRHA’s five plank wagon which I’ll be playing a significant role in.

In other developments I will be undertaking a transition from OOFS to EM and conducting some experiments in P4.

All in all, there’s lots coming up so as they say in the business, stay tuned!

At last, an update on progress with the Pickersgill 4-4-0!
I’ve been somewhat busy with other things of late and energy has been a little sapped by the continually evolving cold that has been my constant companion from late January!
However, we have now progressed to the lining stage on this model. I have used Fox BR mixed traffic lining in this case and though the layered system they use is more complex than most, it isn’t difficult to use on the whole. The only awkward parts of the job are the non standard sections of the cab lining and working out which radius you need for the curves on the splashers. If anybody knows a more accurate way of determining this I’d be grateful if they shared it with me! 😊
I’ve made a start on the other side now so completion edges closer.
Just in time for some seismic changes in my modelling.
More about those in another entry; I’ll be putting a lot more up here over the weekend!